The University of Central Florida explains how this process would work. The astronauts would feed Martian soil (regolith) into a chamber which would be heated to approximately 3,000 degrees Fahrenheit (1648°C). This would produce oxygen and molten metal. Professor Sudipta Seal is helping NASA understand how the resulting metal could be used in a 3D printer.

Elon Musk explaining how he intends to finance the Mission to Mars at the IAC. Photo by Michael Petch.

UAE building Martian city

It’s not just NASA looking at building on Mars. The United Arab Emirates has also just unveiled their plans to build a colony on Mars. The project, known as Mars 2117, has a longer time frame than Elon Musk’s plans to start sending humans to Mars in the next ten years. Within the next 40-100 years, Musk hopes to develop a colony of 1 million people on the red planet. The Government of Dubai’s say the focus will be on developing the infrastructure for producing the engineering minds required before they plan on reaching Mars next century.

Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi said that,

The new project is a seed that we plant today, and we expect future generations to reap the benefits, driven by its passion to learn to unveil a new knowledge.